Impacted crop or sour crop?

[LoCoHens]

Yes, all my chickens are pets and this one is particularly dear. It's reassuring to know there are others out there who feel the same way about their chickies. You just want to help them and do right by them. I'm sorry for what you're going through. I know it's hard.

I'll share what my vet said in case any of it is helpful...

He said my hen's crop was low and attributed this to age. He didn't suggest this, but I may try a crop bra too, at least at night.

He recommended worming her, but I'm afraid to in her compromised condition.

He thought it could be avian leukosis virus which they hatch with and then can cause tumors when they get old or are otherwise compromised. Thankfully this virus is bloodborne and not easily transmitted.

He recommended not continuing with crop treatments like mineral oil, but just try to get high calorie foods into her.

He gave her a long lasting antibiotic injection to cover his bases. He also has her on dexamethasone (steroid) indefinitely. This should help her feel better and can slow tumor growth if that's the issue. But, in the end he said that he didn't think she had much time left. So, I'll just take it day by day.

 

[ChickensRsmart]

Yes, all my chickens are pets and this one is particularly dear. It's reassuring to know there are others out there who feel the same way about their chickies. You just want to help them and do right by them. I'm sorry for what you're going through. I know it's hard.

I'll share what my vet said in case any of it is helpful...

He said my hen's crop was low and attributed this to age. He didn't suggest this, but I may try a crop bra too, at least at night.

He recommended worming her, but I'm afraid to in her compromised condition.

He thought it could be avian leukosis virus which they hatch with and then can cause tumors when they get old or are otherwise compromised. Thankfully this virus is bloodborne and not easily transmitted.

He recommended not continuing with crop treatments like mineral oil, but just try to get high calorie foods into her.

He gave her a long lasting antibiotic injection to cover his bases. He also has her on dexamethasone (steroid) indefinitely. This should help her feel better and can slow tumor growth if that's the issue. But, in the end he said that he didn't think she had much time left. So, I'll just take it day by day.

Don't let the vet's comments bother you. I had more than one vet say one of my horse's didn't have much time left. The last vet said that my horse "had a good run" and that he was likely to die soon....my horse lived another 12 years. LOL

My little hen just keeps on ticking. She's got a good appetite in spite of her problems. Today, I fed her every time she pooped...Her crop is not getting smaller (maybe a little smaller), but as long as it continues to come out the other end, then she gets soft foods...I've only given her a little bit of scrambled egg, and water soaked layer crumble (with olive oil). That and water...still some garlic in there too...not to strong...and I alternate the garlic water with plain water and plain water with electrolytes and vitamins and a probiotic....

She sleeps in the bathroom at night now - no struggle to stay warm.

 

[ChickensRsmart]

Just an update on my little girl. Her fecal float came back clean - No parasites. Her crop is still slow to empty, but I am now trying a crop bra to see if it helps her. She still looks beautiful (and healthy) if not for having lost a lot of weight and having a slow crop...

I have been feeding her soft foods only - stuff that dissolves easily in water...soaked layer crumble (with water and olive oil), scrambled eggs, plain yogurt, bits of melon, apple (no skin), yam bits, etc...she wants to eat grain (or game bird mix), but I have been withholding it. She is still active and continues to hunt and peck around, and I think she would eat a whole lot more if she could eat what she wants to eat...the stuff that doesn't pass easily through her crop.

She has been sleeping indoors now for a couple of weeks (with a heat lamp on one side of her cage - so she can choose more or less heat). Every now and then, she will poop out a poop with one or 2 undigested grains in it - I've been inspecting every one of her poops. LOL. I've also found some fragments of grass in some of her stools - the grains and the grass bits had to have been her for at least 3 weeks - evidence of a blockage...or a partial blockage.

She will still straighten out her neck and shiver once and a while - not as often, but she still does it...particularly I've noticed recently - she will do it right after eating...as if there is discomfort in her crop.

 

[LoCoHens]

Thanks for the update. I laughed when I read that you inspect poops because that is so something I would do. Hopefully her partial blockage will work it's way through. Sending good thoughts for a healthy crop. She certainly has the best loving care.

I feel like with a slow crop, as long as food/waste is getting through, there's hope. But, there is collateral weight loss and you have to be vigilant about sour crop.

My old girl is rallying. I was just about to try an improvised compression bandage crop bra when I went to get her one morning and her crop was normal (empty). To try to get her to regain some weight, twice a day I've been been giving her a mixture of scrambled egg, soft bread, chopped up cooked corn and sunflower hearts, and Cackleberry Nugget Treats with melted coconut oil poured over. I also still have her on the oral steroid every other day that the vet gave me.

 

[ChickensRsmart]

Thanks for the update. I laughed when I read that you inspect poops because that is so something I would do. Hopefully her partial blockage will work it's way through. Sending good thoughts for a healthy crop. She certainly has the best loving care.

I feel like with a slow crop, as long as food/waste is getting through, there's hope. But, there is collateral weight loss and you have to be vigilant about sour crop.

My old girl is rallying. I was just about to try an improvised compression bandage crop bra when I went to get her one morning and her crop was normal (empty). To try to get her to regain some weight, twice a day I've been been giving her a mixture of scrambled egg, soft bread, chopped up cooked corn and sunflower hearts, and Cackleberry Nugget Treats with melted coconut oil poured over. I also still have her on the oral steroid every other day that the vet gave me.

Thanks LoCoHens.

I have been monitoring her for sour crop - because some of the original grains have been in her crop for some time...most of it is gone now, but we're still looking at about 3 weeks with some of the same food in there. She has had some sour breath too. But the food keeps moving through her and her crop is getting close to empty (in the mornings). I have been syringing water whenever it appears that she's not drinking enough to help keep her crop flushing through...I have adopted the more gentle method of simply placing a drop of water under the tip of her beak, and she ends up drinking the drop 9 times out of 10. Within several minutes, she's drank a good half a teaspoon of extra water this way...then I massage her crop again. So far so good - no doughy texture to her crop...

I will definitely add some cooked/chopped corn to her diet - and I've been giving her olive oil, but I will also try coconut oil - I've noticed that chickens appear to have a sharp sense of taste, so maybe she will like coconut oil (I sure do), and that will encourage her to eat more. I will look into getting her some sunflower hearts too - I've been thinking about adding some kind of hulled seeds (no shells to slow the crop)...

 

[ChickensRsmart]

Thanks for the update. I laughed when I read that you inspect poops because that is so something I would do. Hopefully her partial blockage will work it's way through. Sending good thoughts for a healthy crop. She certainly has the best loving care.

I feel like with a slow crop, as long as food/waste is getting through, there's hope. But, there is collateral weight loss and you have to be vigilant about sour crop.

My old girl is rallying. I was just about to try an improvised compression bandage crop bra when I went to get her one morning and her crop was normal (empty). To try to get her to regain some weight, twice a day I've been been giving her a mixture of scrambled egg, soft bread, chopped up cooked corn and sunflower hearts, and Cackleberry Nugget Treats with melted coconut oil poured over. I also still have her on the oral steroid every other day that the vet gave me.

Oh, and one other thing about her...She's been pooping healthy and normal looking poops (but not as many as her younger siblings). She's not drinking that much water during the day - and then at the end of the day, she drinks water like a camel...and then later the next day (twice she's done this now), she will go from normal looking poops, to a big poop with a lot of water...followed later by a lot of water with a little bit of poop. Then her poops will go back to normal looking again. I am not sure what to make of it.
I am wondering if perhaps this is also a sign of a partial blockage - or if perhaps the remaining contents of her crop is getting sour and this is her body's way of flushing it out? The stubborn content in her crop is still getting smaller, and I don't think it should be too much longer before it's finally gone....I wonder if I should even try to mess with it? Is she likely to need some kind of anti yeast medication, or should I just let it continue to improve on its own?

 

[LoCoHens]

It wouldn't surprise me if the drinking lots of water and then the watery poops is related to a partial blockage. Her instinct may be to try to flush it out.

My hen seems to love the coconut oil so hopefully yours will too.

I think if her crop content is getting smaller, you might not need to mess with it too much. I would keep giving her nutrient dense easily digestible foods to mitigate the weight loss and syringing water as needed. Syringing water and massage seemed to help loosen my hen's crop, although it was doughy but never sour. If her progress slows, you could try mineral oil since it's a laxative. I have another hen who recently had crop issues and the vet had me give her 3 ml mineral oil every 8 hours for 5 days in addition to a prescription drug. Her crop issues ended up being related to something more serious, but she's been doing well after some additional treatment for the underlying issue.

I had another hen years ago who developed sour crop related to a more serious underlying issue. With her sour crop, the contents of her crop were very liquidy and there was distinctive sour breath. Acidfied copper sulfate added to her water helped her. My opinion is that if you regularly smell sour breath, you should treat her because the yeast infection may not resolve on its own even after the crop clears. According to this post, the acidified copper sulfate can help a lot of issues.

 

[ChickensRsmart]

It wouldn't surprise me if the drinking lots of water and then the watery poops is related to a partial blockage. Her instinct may be to try to flush it out.

My hen seems to love the coconut oil so hopefully yours will too.

I think if her crop content is getting smaller, you might not need to mess with it too much. I would keep giving her nutrient dense easily digestible foods to mitigate the weight loss and syringing water as needed. Syringing water and massage seemed to help loosen my hen's crop, although it was doughy but never sour. If her progress slows, you could try mineral oil since it's a laxative. I have another hen who recently had crop issues and the vet had me give her 3 ml mineral oil every 8 hours for 5 days in addition to a prescription drug. Her crop issues ended up being related to something more serious, but she's been doing well after some additional treatment for the underlying issue.

I had another hen years ago who developed sour crop related to a more serious underlying issue. With her sour crop, the contents of her crop were very liquidy and there was distinctive sour breath. Acidfied copper sulfate added to her water helped her. My opinion is that if you regularly smell sour breath, you should treat her because the yeast infection may not resolve on its own even after the crop clears. According to this post, the acidified copper sulfate can help a lot of issues.

Thanks LoCoHens!

I will keep monitoring her breath. It does not smell sour all the time...I would give her water or acv water or garlic water (or yogurt water because I think she is sick of yogurt) and then massage her crop and smell her breath at the same time. Sometimes I could smell a slight sour odor...while the old contents of the crop continues to get smaller.

And I can tell that she's been digesting old food (the hard grains and seeds) because the color of her stools will change - with the soaked crumble and olive oil, her stools were/are the same color as the crumble...a tan color. Then she started depositing darker stools - the same color as my other chickens produce (eating the harder foods).

It's difficult to say without an accurate scale, but I think she is starting to gain weight finally. The thing that concerns me the most is the question of whether or not she is eating enough? She eats at least 4 or 5 times per day, but I am not convinced she's eating as much as she should - compared to my other tiny hens...with their huge appetites.

I will pick up some copper sulfate for her today. I think I have narrowed down what is wrong with her...she doesn't have parasites, and does not appear to be constipated...that leaves an impacted (partially) gizzard, or a blockage due to some kind of mass in her digestive tract - or near by in the abdomen.

If she had some kind of bacterial or viral infection (or cancer), then wouldn't it make itself more apparent by now? She looks perfectly healthy other than having lost a lot of weight and the shivering behavior - with neck stretched out... The shivering continues, but is less frequent (and more brief)....

 

[LoCoHens]

From my experience, the smell of sour crop doesn't come and go so the garlic/acv/yogurt may have kept her crop contents from souring. I don't think there's any downside to the acidified copper sulfate though and it covers a lot of bases.

If her crop contents are shrinking and she's gaining weight, then that is promising. It could be she just ate food that was hard to digest maybe with not enough grit and her gizzard is partially impacted and taking a long time to process it. Crop issues can just be crop issues, but I'm always suspect. Other than the intermittent watery poops, are they normal looking and well formed? The Chicken Chick has a good poop resource.

Part of the frustration is not knowing, but you've done a great job of ruling out some things. Even when I've had x-rays done with sick hens, the vet couldn't tell me definitively what was wrong other than there's something there that shouldn't be since x-rays aren't great with soft tissue.

 

[ChickensRsmart]

From my experience, the smell of sour crop doesn't come and go so the garlic/acv/yogurt may have kept her crop contents from souring. I don't think there's any downside to the acidified copper sulfate though and it covers a lot of bases.

If her crop contents are shrinking and she's gaining weight, then that is promising. It could be she just ate food that was hard to digest maybe with not enough grit and her gizzard is partially impacted and taking a long time to process it. Crop issues can just be crop issues, but I'm always suspect. Other than the intermittent watery poops, are they normal looking and well formed? The Chicken Chick has a good poop resource.

Part of the frustration is not knowing, but you've done a great job of ruling out some things. Even when I've had x-rays done with sick hens, the vet couldn't tell me definitively what was wrong other than there's something there that shouldn't be since x-rays aren't great with soft tissue.

Thanks again LoCoHens. I do tend to obsess over not knowing exactly what is causing the problem...lol. Her poops look perfectly healthy most of the time - I've even compared them to the stools from my other little hens (who are doing fine).
The one or 2 watery stools that she does just about every day now for the last 5 or 6 days, is not merely watery - but it's almost all clear water...just a little bit of semi well formed fecal matter in what has to be (at times) as much as a tablespoon of water (clear water) - with no foul odor. Then her stools go back to normal again - well formed with the same moisture content in the stools produced by a healthy chicken.
She does love the chopped up, cooked corn that you suggested - and the raw chopped up, hulled sunflower seeds (I could not find sunflower hearts)...and I've been drizzling coconut oil all over her favorite foods...just the heat from my finger tips melts the oil...and it smells great! I am still whipping olive oil into her water soaked layer crumble - as this recipe appears to be the one that causes her to eat the most of it....and I've found that sprinkling chopped sunflower seed bits onto her yogurt and scrambled eggs helps to get her to continue pecking at these foods too - otherwise, I think she is tired of the eggs and yogurt.
Her crop has perhaps a teaspoon of the old food still in there - the hard grains. But her crop has gone down by at least 75 to 85%...the new foods obviously appear to be moving through her at the rate that they normally would....based on size and texture of her crop in the mornings... I am continuing to give her acv water and 1 time per day now, I syringe her (an eye dropper rather than a syringe) about 1 ml of garlic water - not too strong. I've been monitoring her crop for any doughy texture and checking her breath for any sour odor...so far, so good.
She's still very skinny but she continues to eat at least several times per day - but again, not as much as I would like to see her eating...Nevertheless, I remain hopeful, as she has even started becoming more vocal again and she still looks very healthy - good color to her comb, face and waddles....I just realized yesterday that she's been very quiet for a hen - when she once again began making her little hens sounds...little cooing and clucking noises.